Artist's commentary
Karindou 4 Koma Extra Story Pseudo Short Story [Ghostrick Live] 7
"Gaaaah!"
Late at night, a light in the sky flickered in an urban city. On the rooftop of a tall building, dimly illuminated with light from the semi-cloud covered moon, a man screamed in agony and collapsed. His muscles were distorted, and smoke was coming out from his lifeless body, and the terrible smell of burned flesh invaded their noses. His clothes were torn, like they were ripped apart from the inside, with some giant bat-like wings growing from his back. But now, they had been destroyed and turned to ashes, and he was back to his original form, having not fulfilled his original task.
"Damn... Damn! I'm an unmatched vampire, g, getting toyed around like this by someone... geh!"
The man couldn't hide his irritation as pain wracked his entire body, and as he gasped for breath, he screamed in agony, but the petite girl? who descended from the sky landed on his back, and interrupted that.
"Ah, so you fell here. That was unexpected that my chasing shot got you."
The girl? was calm, but didn't get off of his back. Carrying a broom with a strange sillouette, wearing some school's uniform, and wearing a muffler to keep her face hidden even though it was summer, the girl with long white hair whispered into the wind over the building. Now matter how you looked at it, it seemed like some anime cosplay, but her dignified appearance seemed natural.
"Ah, you were attacking innocent humans as you wanted, so accept this as your punishment."
"Don't mess with me...! Vampires, the kings of the night, striking down lowly humans like you is simpl..."
"Hah, you must be completely ignorant, for a vampire to have "fallen so low" as to scream. Not being able to withstand sunlight, cross running water, eat garlic, and only able to drink blood as food, and calling others low, don't spout such nonsense, you damn virgin brat!!"
Maybe the man who had thought himself as 1st class was shocked through and through, but as he was verbally abused with a gaze as cold as absolute zero, a high pitched sound rang in his ears as a purple lightning ran through the girl?'s body. Baring his fangs in anger, the man tried to life his upper body, but it was stopped by a powerful electrical current that ran from the foot on his back. And then, he felt the overpowering energy on his back be amplified, and the man now started to fear the girl?.
"Hmph, if you don't mean to reform yourself, then that's fine too. I won't kill you right away, since I want for you to feel regret for your job in eating rotted meat, and to taste the weight of the sins you committed, and then die...!"
"Hold on, wait, at least use a wooden stake or a cross, since I'm a vampire you should use one of those traditional gyaaaaaaaaaa!!"
In the sky, aiming for the skyscraper, flashing sparks intermittently landed on it, and eventually it grew silent.
"Good job. I had come to help take care of this one, but... alas, you were too fast."
A man with grey, slick back hair in a suit and wearing sunglasses, despite it being night, jumped over from the neighboring building. Already, the man who was earlier calling himself an unmatched vampire, was now dust blowing in the wind.
"It takes some time to deal with these minions, and they all don't come out at once."
"...There's probably at least 30 of them in this group. Well, I guess these ones that were quickly made so they were ready in time aren't enough for you when you're serious."
"Weren't you the one who's early? Did you miss the boss, VK?"
"Eh, their numbers explosively increased, so I thought maybe, that searching for the enemy would take some extraordinary means."
"...I see. We haven't found him, despite all this searching."
The man called VK sighed as he pushed up his sunglasses with his finger. The girl? agreed, with a look of disappointment on her face. VK, who sensed her displeasure, unconsciously took a step back.
"W, why are you in such a unpleasant mood?"
"I'm not."
"No, you are, you're clearly unhappy. Please put yourself in my position. Are you unhappy to be accompanied by me? What are you unsatisfied with?"
"I'm not unsatisfied. Actually, I'd like to thank you for accompanying me."
"...Well, when I received the call to help you with your request to the Sweepers, I wondered what it could be. I thought it might have been related to a personal grudge against me for the way I handled an incident, but are you unhappy with me?"
"That's not the case, neither now nor back then. I simply have not made any progress towards my own goal, so I'm annoyed. I'm sorry."
"For you to honestly apologize, I wonder if it will snow tomorrow. Since it's summer."
The girl? dropped her unpleasant tone, and VK exaggeratedly shrugged his shoulders and looked up at the sky. He was used to putting up with her sarcastic-seeming yelling.
"But still, could you stop with that tone, "Rising Harmonics". Or was it "Midnight Mistress", when you're dressed like that? It's such an annoyance, so I'll call you Elza-sama, but just knowing it's you is extremely disgusting, when you talk like a young person. Please consider your age."
"Ah, geez, shut up! Shut up you idiot! I'm talking formally, so it can't be helped! Idiot! Idiottt!"
The girl named Elza couldn't stand that unnecessary bit, and went back to yelling.
Two weeks had passed since Elza had returned to the Schtlehertz estate.
In those two weeks, Elza was using VK as a go-between for resolving the mysterious incidents and supernatural incidents, all the while secretly searching for the criminal's location or base by fighting and invading the surrounding buildings, and investigating whether there were any suspicious facilities or not. The clue to Ran's missing corpse appeared to be experimental data, and she was trying to find the research facility which was the source of it.
The man VK was the branch manager of the Sweepers, and a man whose motto was managing from the field. When he first met Elza over 100 years ago, due to a misunderstanding, they tried to kill each other, and now as someone who knows Elza's history, he is the pipe that connects the Schtlehertz family with outside groups. Using his authority, Elza could continue her investigation without any reasonable cause. He was brought along because he is an old acquaintance of the Schtlehertz family (in reality, Elza herself), and officially, Elza was helping and supporting the incident investigation that he was dealing with. Elza, who was hiding her history, was there to prevent 3rd parties from interfering. Also, his base that he was in charge of was a hotel in the heart of the city,
and there were a wide variety of incidents that he was handling, so his method of managing from the field was an unexpected benefit, and his reach could extend wide. For Elza, this was convenient.
However, even though she's been able to invade all these facilities like that, there's been absolutely no progress. The place the data originated from was in a nearby town close to the Schtlehertz land, which was a specific area, and without being able to specifically narrow it down, Aiina was currently continuing to trace it. Elza spent her days by heading to the Foxrider mansion to make sense of the data during the day, and be busy with the Sweepers' work at night. The fact that there was absolutely not progress on the investigation had her fed up and annoyed. This is why she was unhappy.
Elza, who had finished investigating the interior of another building today, had an angry expression at not finding anything. Returning to the roof, VK looked at her with a worried smile.
"But, in terms of unnatural incidents, in these 2 weeks, there's been 5, and this makes it 6. Isn't that a little much? It's like, the lid from a pot of Hell opened up."
"I'm happy just to be able to quickly resolve this many incidents, and it's all thanks to you. For this to happen so often recently... it's possible that this itself is a strange incident."
"Huh?"
"Hey, you're a necromancer, so haven't you realized it? You're in a perfect place to look out over the city, so why don't you try doing so?"
She looked down over the city as she was told. In the late night downtown, where there were hardly any people walking around, and the occasional cars' headlights were too few, aside from a distant siren of a patrol car, it was extremely peaceful. The people walking around probably never dreamed that in the skies above them, those with unnatural abilities and unnatural forms fought. In an alley, there was a faint movement, which probably was a stray cat, and behind a restaurant, an overturned garbage can was being rooted through by tiny things, who were desperately trying to survive.
No matter where she looked, it was an ordinary scene. However, Elza's sense told her something was wrong.
"Huh, this is... peaceful, the animals are too quiet, even if it's the middle of a city."
"You realized it? Yes, normally, beings who are vigilant for "things that are there, or shouldn't be there", and are timidly cautious, are out like they belong there. So, basically, this means..."
"...Wandering spirits, spirits bound to a location, nameless spirits, evil spirits... and animal spirits, it's not quite all of them, but every spirit have vanished...!"
A city is a jumbled collection of human thoughts. Spirits also gather there, as if they are drawn to them. Ghost stories, like a human sillouette being seen between buildings late at night, and places where people are focused on, draw people looking for them. And then, spirits are also drawn to people. They have an interest, or have a grudge, or various things. So they won't leave from a place where people gather.
And she could only see a surprisingly few number of them.
"Yes, those that normally wander as they please are not there. It might be some force unknown to us or something, but it's best to think that something is happening. And I can't deny that it's possible that the "something" that is causing these supernatural incidents is drawing them. This city is quite big, enough to have a large enough "broken soul core" that will draw sealed youkai, like Oinari City, though there's nothing sealed here."
"So, the "something that draws non-humans" that you spoke of, have you determined that it's not a "calamity"?"
"Yeah. If this was the work of a "calamity"... The moment it took noticable action, it would already be too late, and at worst, half of our country's population would be perish, and at best, 1 nation would vanish from the map and the world map would need to be redrawn."
"So the uncertainty of each nation participating in the attack would cause unrest, and all focus would be on the uncertainty, and the nations would all hate each other, and it would bring about the conditions for the "calamity" to happen... Well, it should be fine."
Elza, who had been thinking about this serious, suddenly said that lightheartedly, and VK slipped and fell in surprised relief.
"What, that's unusual for you to have a comical reaction."
"I can play a fool too! I mean, why are you so optimistic?"
At VK's question, Elza was reminded of a certain person's face and gave a dry laugh.
"Because I can guarantee there will be peace for about another 400 years."
As VK tilted his head, not understanding, Elza gave another dry laugh.
Her apprentice's apprentice, who was originally serious, but become dirty like herself and came from the future, didn't explicitly say there was a great danger, but gave a warming. That's basically why.
Since Elza kept on dryly laughing, VK thought he was being made fun of, and cause VK to pout a little, and he started looking around for the cause of the disappearing spirits from the city.
"Hey, hey, how long are you going to pout, let's go look around. Really, someone who's a "vampire killer" shouldn't be playing the Devil's advocate."
"...It's not very nice being called a Devil's advocate. Hah... (...Really, I can't compare to her. Especially falling in love with a married woman.)"
"Did you say something?"
"Nothing!! Well, let's go look around."
The dirty, married female wizard and the overly serious, shy man got on Aeri=al and flew off into the night sky.